Whos down in Whoville, and underwater residents of Bikini Bottom, there’s news for both of you: McDonald’s and Burger King, longtime fast-food rivals, are going head-to-head. Or, to be more accurate, scary red-wigged, face-painted clown head against equally frightening red-bearded crown-wearing head.

On Tuesday, McDonald’s introduced The Grinch Meal, and on the same day, Burger King rolled out its SpongeBob SquarePants menu. So if you’re sick of Thanksgiving leftovers and want some fast food instead, you can decide if your taste buds resonate with the crabby green Grinch or the always cheerful SpongeBob.

Both are limited-edition offerings, so get to your local McDonald’s or Burger King soon if you want to try out the meals.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

McDonald’s Grinch Meal Review

Honestly, McDonald’s Grinch Meal isn’t as creative as BK’s offerings — where are the green-dyed buns, the green shake or the McRoast Beast burger? Essentially, the Grinch Meal is an adult Happy Meal, consisting of your choice of a regular Big Mac or a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, fries and a medium drink.

Fries with Grinch Salt (dill-pickle seasoning)

McDonald’s offers only one unusual food item with the Grinch Meal, and that’s an accessory for the fries. They come with a small bag of tangy dill pickle seasoning, labeled Grinch Salt, that you’re supposed to shake on your fries for a puckery addition. Pickles, like the Grinch, are green and sour, so I guess that’s the connection here.

How did they taste? Pretty good! I’m a pickle fan, and once I shook them up, the fries were sour and salty and overall delightful. Two green, furry thumbs up.

No Grinch toy, but … socks?

Happy Meals always come with an extra toy or prize of some kind. But there’s no Grinch stuffed animal or Cindy Lou Who figurine with McDonald’s Grinch Meal, although the box it all comes in is cute and Grinchy-themed.

Instead, you get the one Christmas gift that’s so cliched there are endless jokes about it: a pair of socks. There are four different Grinch-themed socks showing The Grinch, Cindy Lou Who, Max the dog and some McDonald’s logo-themed ornaments. Each pair also has an all-caps, hand-scrawled-looking message from the Grinch.

The blue socks read: «These socks stink.»

The yellow socks read: «Nose Hazard.»

The red socks read: «Property of the Grinch.»

And the green socks read, «The Grinch was here.»

My review: I ended up with the yellow pair of socks. They seem to be of decent quality, and considering how lame some fast-food prizes are, this was a score for me. I might actually wear them.

Grade: A

Burger King SpongeBob SquarePants menu

If McDonald’s kind of went Grinch-appropriate stingy on its Grinch offerings, Burger King went Sponge Bob-overboard with the generous SpongeBob SquarePants menu. SpongeBob fans, you might as well go all out and order the Bikini Bottom Bundle, which gives you all four of the themed items in a pineapple-shaped box.

King Jr. kids’ meal in a pineapple box

There’s no adult meal, but there is a King Jr. kids’ meal, in a box shaped like SpongeBob’s underwater pineapple home. It includes one of six SpongeBob toys. 

My review: My toy was a figurine of SpongeBob wearing a pirate’s cap and clutching a ship’s wheel. There was supposed to be a Burger King SpongeBob crown too, but my location must’ve forgotten to give those out. The SpongeBob toy was pretty cool as kids’ toys go, though. And the pineapple box is cute.

Grade: A-

Krabby Patty? Almost!

As every SpongeBob fan knows, the cheerful sponge is a fry cook at The Krusty Krab, serving up Krabby Patties all day long, so he knows his fast food. Burger King has plenty of themed menu items, way more than the McDonald’s Grinch offerings.

SpongeBob’s Krabby Whopper

SpongeBob’s Krabby Whopper is the closest thing to the Krabby Patty from the show. (Wendy’s had a Krabby Patty and Pineapple Frosty last year, you might recall.) It seems to be a pretty ordinary Whopper until you get to the bun, which is square and yellow, just like our spongy hero. The yellow dye is made with natural spices, Burger King says. Otherwise, the Whopper is just a regular Whopper.

My review: The Whopper is not my favorite burger, but I have to say the light-yellow, squared-off bun looks super cool. It didn’t taste any different, but I appreciated it.

Grade: B

Mr. Krabs’ Cheesy Bacon Tots 

Mr. Krabs’ Cheesy Bacon Tots are crispy, coin-shaped potato tots filled with cheese, bacon bits and potatoes, served in a treasure chest-themed carton. 

My review: Ugh, pass on these. The artificial taste of the bacon is pretty awful, and it dried out in about 3 seconds.

Grade: C-

Patrick’s Star-berry Shortcake Pie review

Patrick Star is SpongeBob’s best friend, and in his honor, you can order Patrick’s Star-berry Shortcake Pie. It’s a strawberry shortcake pie slice featuring strawberry and vanilla-flavored creamy layers, a crunchy cookie crumb crust, shortcake cookie crumbles and pink star-shaped sprinkles.

My review: Yum! I’m not usually a fan of any fast-food dessert, but this was sweet and creamy, and the crust was tasty, too.

Grade: A

Pirate’s Frozen Pineapple Float review

Honoring SpongeBob’s pineapple home, you can order a Pirate’s Frozen Pineapple Float, described as «an icy, refreshing frozen pineapple-flavored beverage topped with tropical-flavor cold foam.»

My review: This was my favorite item among all the meals. I didn’t really detect any tropical flavoring in the «cold foam,» but the drink was kind of like a classed-up pineapple Slurpee, refreshing and sweet.

Grade: A+

Grinch Meal or SpongeBob Menu, which tastes better?

Is it wrong to say I liked the non-edible parts of both meals almost more than the food? The Grinch socks were decent quality and cute, and the SpongeBob figurine was fun.

Food-wise, Burger King gets points for the tasty pineapple float and the Patrick pie. The McDonald’s meal is just McDonald’s food with the dill-pickle seasoning for fries added. That’s fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go that far. 

My vote, then, is if you’re only going to go to one of these chains before the limited-edition themed meals go away, hit up Burger King and try the Bikini Bottom Bundle. Unless you’re an enormous Grinch fan, pickle lover or really need some new socks.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle has pretty common letters, so you shouldn’t struggle for too long, if you use smart starter words. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has two vowels.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with H.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with E.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to excessive speed or urgency.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is HASTE.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Dec. 2, No. 1627 was CACTI.

Recent Wordle answers

Nov. 28, No. 1623: COLIC

Nov. 29, No, 1624: GRUFF

Nov. 30, No. 1625: MUGGY

Dec. 1, No. 1626: LEACH

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. Pennsylvanians, you might have an edge here, and so too will fans of a certain NBA star. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Flip!

Green group hint: The Keystone state.

Blue group hint: Melo.

Purple group hint: Take part in a sport, plus another word.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Words heard during a coin toss.

Green group: Pennsylvania college team nicknames.

Blue group: Teams Carmelo Anthony played for.

Purple group: Play ____.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is words heard during a coin toss. The four answers are defer, heads, receive and tails.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Pennsylvania college team nicknames. The four answers are Nittany Lions, Owls, Panthers and Quakers.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is teams Carmelo Anthony played for. The four answers are Knicks, Lakers, Nuggets and Orange.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is play ____. The four answers are action, caller, maker and off.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.